


all i saw was you

by SpyKids69420



Category: Legacies (TV 2018)
Genre: Alternate Universe - High School, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Alternate Universe - No Powers, F/F, Fluff and Angst, Friends to Lovers, Slow Burn, probably
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-04-04
Updated: 2019-06-18
Packaged: 2020-01-04 13:06:14
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 9,135
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18344282
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SpyKids69420/pseuds/SpyKids69420
Summary: Josie just wants her junior year to go by smoothly without distractions, but this becomes harder when she meets new girl Penelope at her and Lizzie's 17th birthday party.





	1. Chapter 1

Prologue

The first day school is known to be the hardest for any new student, but Penelope wasn’t scared – not really, at least. 

Where others may find it difficult to fit in, adapt and find new friends, Penelope had no bother with that. Gaining friends was never a problem for her, always having a flock of followers surrounding her wherever she went at her old school. But Mystic Falls high was going to be different. Her last year of high school wasn’t going to be like the previous years, she was going to go in with her head low and try not to stand out to anyone. She was just going to stick to herself, there didn’t need to be a repeat of her junior year at her old school. 

Penelope takes her first step into the school yard and notices that its already lively with other students. The school itself is relatively small, much like the town itself. She knows being the new student in a small town is bound to bring her some attraction. Her thought was seen to be true as she walks further towards the school and notices the stares of other students. A couple months back she would be relishing in the attention from everyone and walk with her head held high, but now, she doesn’t want to be noticed. It makes sense, she knows Mystic Falls is a small town that probably doesn’t get many new residents all too often. She quickly pulls her earphones out of her jacket pocket and shoves the pods into her ears. Some slow, melancholic piano starts playing as she continues walking towards the school. She can still feel the stares of everyone around her, and out of curiosity she picks her stare up from the ground and looks at the people surrounding her. She can’t be bothered with any form of interaction at the moment, so she looks past them to a sign that says where the office is directed and decides to get her schedule.

She turns her head back towards the pathway when her shoulder collides with another one. She stops in her tracks and turns around fully ready to curse a bitch out, especially when she notices the other girl didn’t even stop to say anything. But then she looks at the girls face and-

Her world stops. Everything around her stops.

She can only half-see the girls face as she continues to walk away from Penelope. Her brunette hair falls right below her shoulders in perfect curls. Her red sweater looks a little too big for her, the arms covering part of the hands she’s using to passionately talk to the taller blonde beside her, and she has the biggest, most broad smile across her face and Penelope swears she can see stars in her eyes and just-

Wow.

Penelope swears the tune that was playing just moments ago turns from a sad, brittle piece to the most beautiful, romantic love song she’s ever head. The same keys have a whole different meaning. The girl continues walking without a glance back, completely oblivious to how dumbstruck she made this stranger feel. 

Suddenly Penelope want to throw her whole plan away, do the most extravagant things in order to get this girls attention. She wants to walk right up to this girl and take introduce herself and take her hand and spin her around this whole school yard. But she just keeps walking, and Penelope takes no action to stop her. She didn’t notice Penelope, no acknowledgement at all, which completely contrasts to how the rest of the student population are basically staring at her like a wild zoo animal.

She didn’t notice Penelope, but God, did Penelope notice her.


	2. Chapter 2

“I don’t think I want to be seventeen.”

Currently sitting on the sofa in her Livingroom, staring aimlessly up at the ceiling, Josie Saltzman is moping. Soft music is playing from the TV, and the brunette is deep in her thoughts. Across from her, her sister is lying across the floor looking at her phone.

“Why not, there’s so many great songs about being seventeen. Plus, dad says we’re finally able to buy a car, so there’s that.” Lizzie says back, only glancing up at the other girl towards the end of the sentence.

Josie thinks to herself for a couple beats. “Yeah, that’s cool and all, but there’s so many new responsibilities that comes with getting older, and I don’t think I’m ready for that.” 

Lizzie looks up towards her sisters and slightly huffs. She gets up from her place on the ground and sits next to her sister, slinging an arm around her waist and resting her head on the girl’s shoulder.  
“Jo, whatever responsibilities you get, I’m taking on at least half of them as well. We’re sharing them. Because that’s the responsibility of a twin, and I know you’ll take on my struggles with me. Now stop being emo and think about our totally awesome party that we’re having tomorrow night.” Lizzie beams at her sister, trying to reassure her, but Josie groans at the mention of the party.

“Y’know, you were getting somewhere until you had to mention the party.” Josie moans out, shaking her sister off her shoulder. 

The party is something that makes Lizzie feel less sad about both of their parents being out of town during their birthday. They’re currently in Canada doing some business surrounding the private school they are trying to invest in. Josie doesn’t care enough to know all the details. With this, the parents won’t be back for another two weeks. Lizzie has been evidently hurt by this, but tries to mask her feelings by saying how amazing their party will be without any parent supervision. Which does sound cool to Josie, but it doesn’t get rid of the fact that her mom and dad won’t be with them, celebrating their birthday, like they have every year before. Josie groans at her sisters’ words and puts her hand over her face. 

Lizzie shoves the brunette back into the sofa. “Shut up, I know you’re just as excited for it as I am. And I made sure to personally invite Rafael.”

Rafael Waithe. The boy Josie is kinda not-really sorta dating. How could she forget? Rafael was a nice guy, and Josie thinks she actually did like him in the beginning. But the more they tip-toed around actually getting together, the more Josie saw that she didn’t really want things to be romantic between them. She’s vocalized this to her sister before, but the other girl dismissed it by saying how could Josie possibly know she didn’t want things to go further if they haven’t really been anywhere in the first place. Josie thinks that maybe once the relationship actually begins, then maybe she can learn to like him. And it might calm down the confusing feelings in her head about her best friend.

“Why did you invite him? You said the parties open to anyone who isn’t a freshman.” Inquires Josie, although she half-knows the answer already.

“Because you guys are finally going to get together at that party. You’re going to kiss him and make it official!” Lizzie says ecstatically.

She gives a pointed look at Lizzie. “Why do you sound more excited for this than I do?” Josie questions back at her sister, with a snarky smirk on her face. 

“I mean, maybe in some ways I am. Seeing my sister get into her first relationship means a lot to me.” Lizzie says, faking condescendence and putting her hand over her heart. 

Josie rolls her eyes at the blonde. “Haha. You’re funny.” Josie snaps back at her sister.

“Thanks for the compliment, but I knew that already.” 

“Of course you did.”

“Guys, stop bickering, I found wine.” Hope steps into the room. She had been forced to look for alcohol in the house by Lizzie and came back holding the bottle up in the air like a prize and grinning at the twins.

Hope Mikaelson is Josie Saltzman’s best friend. She’s achingly beautiful, smart, just all-around amazing and Josie can’t get enough of her. Along with Lizzie, they spend most days together just chilling and enjoying each other’s company. Josie also happens to have the biggest crush on her. A crush that has been bubbling since they first met almost 4 years before. How could she not? Hope Mikealson is extraordinary and Josie feels extremely lucky to get to spend time with her. She couldn’t tell Hope about her crush though, because she would never want to do anything to ruin their friendship. Hope also happens to be dating a guy in Josie’s year called Landon, who from what Josie could tell, was a good boyfriend. They didn’t spend much time together without Hope being there, so she didn’t know him that much. Josie is also not sure that she’s ready to admit her sexuality yet. She’s not even completely sure what it as anyways. The people in her life would be accepting of her, she thinks, but for whatever reason the though of coming out terrifies her, even to the people she knows will always love her. With that, Josie has decided to put any thoughts of her sexuality out of her head until she’s at least like, 20 or something. So, she is just ignoring her non-straightness for now. Everything will work out in the end.

Hope took it upon herself to stay over at the Saltzman residence while Caroline and Alaric are in Canada, much to Josie’s happiness. Having her around was always a good time. Lizzie jumped up from her position next to Josie and heads straight for the wine in Hope’s hand. Popping off the cap, in so making Hope jump out of her skull, she takes a large swing from the bottle. 

Josie hurries over to her sister and takes the bottle out of her hand.

“The doctor said you shouldn’t drink, Liz.” Josie warns her sister, sitting the wine on the table behind her.

Right before the school year started, Josie and Lizzie’s parents noticed something was going on with the blonde twin. When Lizzie went through some sort of breakdown for a couple days, they knew they had to do something about it. So, they went with Lizzie to go see a psychiatrist, and pretty soon after they were told Lizzie had been diagnosed with bipolar disorder. Josie still doesn’t fully understand it, and she’s not sure if Lizzie does either, but since the diagnosis Josie has been rather overprotective of her sister. Lizzie called her overbearing. Josie doesn’t want to admit that’s she’s wary of Lizzie having another episode, but she is.

Lizzie goes straight to the table and lifts the drink up again. She looks back at her sister and opens her mouth. “He said I shouldn’t drink regularly, Josie, not become some sad alcohol-free nun. Special occasions and all.”

Josie gives an exasperated expression to her sister. “Lizzie, its 10 o’clock on a Thursday, what special occasion is this!”

“It’s my birthday!”

“It literally isn’t for like another two hours!”

“Wow. I entered the room and somehow even more twin bickering occurred! That sure is great for me!” Hope took the wine from Lizzie started drinking it.

Lizzie rolled her eyes at the redhead. “Don’t be sarcastic, Mikaelson.” She warns.

Hope makes a salute signal with her hand. “Yes sir!” She says. Sarcastically.

Lizzie smiles and sticks the finger up at Hope, in which the other girl smiles back, and sticks her middle finger back as well. Josie rolls her eyes at them and audibly groans. Slumping back down on the sofa, Josie shuts her eyes. She guesses she is pretty excited for her birthday, but she still can’t shake the sadness of not having her parents here with them. She feels tears building up, and starts blinking to get them to go away.

Noticing her distress, Hope wordlessly hands the wine bottle in her direction with a small smile. She eyes it carefully before deciding, fuck it, and takes a large swig off it. 

 

\---------------------

The sun shining in her eyes wakes Josie up. She reaches for her phone that’s sitting next to her pillow and it reads: 06:26AM. Part of her is glad she’s not going to be late for school, another part of her is wondering why the fuck its sunny in October. Laying in her bed facing the window, she can’t help the thoughts that are running around her head. She wants this chapter of her life to be over with already. High school parties and exams and dating people she doesn’t particularly want to date, she’s over it. Unrequited crushes are also something she wants to be over with.  
With that thought in mind, Josie remembers she’s not alone in her bed. Turning her body, she sees Hope laying next to her, above the covers. Josie thinks of how young Hope looks like this, with her eyes gently closed and soft hair covering half her face. Her hair looks so soft. Josie repositions her arm to have her face laying on it, with her hand nearing Hope’s head. Ever so gently, she caresses a few strands of Hope’s auburn hair, moving her fingers carefully, hesitantly. She wishes she was able to be affectionate with Hope all the time, but she knows that’s not possible. Hope doesn’t have feelings for her, and that’s somethings Josie’s going to have to live with. Hope is her best friend. Her best friend who has an amazing boyfriend. She’s not Josie’s, and Josie’s not hers. A bitter taste lies in her mouth as she remembers all this.

Hearing light footsteps outside the door of her room, Josie swiftly moves her hand from Hope’s hair and tucks it under her head, she then closes her eyes and feints sleep. 

“Jo wake up!” She feels a pillow slam against her head. “Josie, we’re seventeen! Holy shit!” She opens her eyes and squints at her grinning sister, who’s leaning over the side of the bed.

“Yeah I know,” Josie rubs her hands down her face, trying to wake herself up more. “I didn’t need to be reminded with being hit in the face.” She quips back, sitting up on the bed.

Josie hears the figure laying down beside her exaggeratedly groan before opening her mouth to speak. “Can you guys please stop talking, I swear i’m one snarky comment from Lizzie away from having an aneurysm.”

“Wow. Drama queens. The both of you.” Lizzie says. “Now, I’m going to go make myself pancakes because it is my birthday, and I definity deserve some after being ridiculed by my own sister and good friend. And, no, I’m not making either of you any.” With that, Lizzie takes her clothes and leaves the bedroom.

“And she calls us the drama queens.” Hope says, turning her head up to face Josie while grinning at her. Josie chuckles at the older girl’s comment.

Hope raises her arm towards Josie for the other girl to help her get up. Josie grabs the girl’s wrist and pulls her up. Hope rests a hand on Josie’s knee to steady herself and Josie can’t help but have her breath hitch, which the other girl doesn’t seem to notice. Removing her hands from Josie, Hope runs her fingers through her hair, pushing it back, with her eyes closed and head tilted backwards. Josie’s gawking, of course she is, how the hell can Hope look like a god damn super model 30 seconds after waking up? 

“We should um, get up, don’t you think?” Josie gets out, averting her eyes from Hope.

“Yeah, we have to act all sad about not getting any of Lizzie’s pancakes when we go downstairs. She doesn’t seriously still think she can cook, right?” Hope says.

“I think she refuses to acknowledge it.” Josie answers.

Both girls laugh amongst themselves before getting out of the bed. Once up, Josie makes the bed, while Hope waits for her at the door. 

“Hey, Josie?” Hope says, stepping forward to help with a corner of the duvet.

Josie looks up into Hope’s eyes. “Yeah?”

“Happy birthday.” Hope smiles a real smile at Josie with a slight twinkle in her blue eyes, showing her genuineness. Josie can’t help but smile back at the shorter girl. She remembers how hard it was initially for Hope to make friends after moving from New Orleans back when they were preteens and is eternally grateful that she had the honor of being Hope’s first friend. She loves moments like this, moments where she sees Hope Michaelson be soft. A side of her that very few people see.

“Thanks.”

\-------------

 

School has been alright so far. Most people who know her have stopped to tell her happy birthday, and some have vocalized their excitement for the party as well. Josie feels as though everyone but her is excited for this party. It really isn’t going to be something special, just alcohol and hormonal teens, only this time there’s a birthday cake, she thinks to herself. She’s walking towards the restroom when she sees Rafael looking at her. He starts walking towards Josie, with his hands on the straps of his backpack, and smiles at her.

“Hey.” He says, stopping in front of her.

“Hi.” Josie smiles up at him, but not looking him in the eye.

There’s a semi-awkward silence between when Rafael is just looking at her. She doesn’t know why he’s just like, paused or something.

He slightly shakes his head, snapping himself out of his thoughts. “Um, happy birthday!” He leans down to give her a brief hug, it slightly surprised her, but Josie hugs back. He’s strong, she can definitely tell. He doesn’t smell too bad either. Josie wonders why the hell she’s not attracted to him. Rafael pulls back and starts speaking again. “I’m uh, looking forward to the party tonight. I bet you’ll look beautiful in whatever your wearing.”

Josie can’t help but smile and blush at his comment. “Thanks.” She says back shyly.

Rafael fumbles around with the straps of his backpack for a couple seconds before speaking. “I’m heading to English, which way are you going?” He asks.

“Geography, up the stairs. And I’m heading to the restroom so I should actually get going before I’m too late, y’know?” She replies, circling around him in the direction of the toilets.

“Oh yeah, of course! Ill uh, see you at lunch? If not, tonight?” He asks again, walking backwards slightly.

“Yeah tonight, definitely!” 

“Cool. Well um, see you around.” He waves at her a little.

“Yeah, bye!” She waves back at him. 

When Rafael starts walking away, she opens the door to the toilets hurriedly, knowing she’s going to be late for her next class.

Once finished her business, Josie starts walking the halls up to her class. She’s not thinking of much, just brief thoughts of Rafael, and Hope, and her parents. But its all fleeting. She looks around the halls and noticing she’s the only one around and decided to pick up the pace a bit, not wanting to be too late. She turns a corner and notices that there’s another girl walking the halls, in the direction of Josie. 

And then that girl is closer. And then Josie is looking at her. And then the girl is looking right back at her.

Except, that’s not a girl. That’s a whole-ass goddess. She’s shorter than Josie, she can tell. The goddess has dark brown wavy hair that’s cut above her shoulders, with earphones poking out of her ears. She’s wearing a button up white shirt with the first few buttons unbuttoned, and its tucked into her black jeans. Josie notices she has a nose stud, with draws attention to how cute her nose is. The eyes that she’s currently staring into must be the most mesmerizing eyes Josie has ever seen in her live. Piercing green eyes feel as though their staring into her soul. Josie can’t look away; this girl is absolutely beautiful.

Josie walks past her, and automatically, she looks back. And the girl is already looking back and staring at her. Their eye-contact continues until shortly after when the other girl passes a corner. Josie looks ahead again. But now she can’t get that girl out of her mind. How has she never noticed her before? She thinks of Hope mentioning a new student arriving in her year a couple weeks back, but Josie wasn’t really all that interested then. But damn, she was truly something else. Josie almost didn’t feel worthy walking the same halls as her, she was the most beautiful person Josie has seen in her life.  
Josie continues walking to geography, but she can’t get the image of the girl out of her head.

\------------

The party has been in full-swing for over an hour now and Josie feels like she’s had enough. Most of the night has been spend by her sisters’ side admittedly looking like a lost puppy. Josie hates that she feels this way in her own home, but she’s never been a big fan of crowds. At some point Lizzie got ushered away by some of her classmates, and now Josie is standing in the back of her Livingroom, drinking beer alone. Fed up with being surrounded by sweaty teenagers and loud music, she heads up to her bathroom.

Opening the bathroom door Josie lets her head fall against it. When she hears mumbles behind her, Josie looks at the rest of the room. Sitting in the Bathtub were Rafael and Landon, with Hope laying over both of them. They’re in the bathtub talking and passing a joint between one another. It calmed Josie down that she was surrounded by familiar people where it wasn’t too loud. 

Hope looks up from her spot on the boys and notices Josie. “Hey, what’s up?” She says with a big grin plastered on her face.

Josie goes to sit on the pan of the toilet and lets her head fall back. “Just felt like getting out of there for a few minutes.” She rubs at her neck. “Its pretty loud.” She turns her head towards her friends in her bathtub. 

Landon takes the joint out of his mouth. “This’ll calm you.” He bends over the tub and stretches his arm out waiting her to take the joint off of him. She reaches for it and mumbles a thanks to him before taking a short puff. 

She goes to give the joint back to him. “You can keep it. Its your birthday gift from me.” He says to her, with a playful wink at the end. Josie puts it out in a nearby ashtray before putting it in a small plastic bag and shoving it in her cardigan pocket.

“Thanks.”

Josie looks at Rafael and offers him a small smile. She’s not been actively avoiding him at the party or anything, she just didn’t really want to speak to him. Nothing against him of course, but she doesn’t know how the conversation would progress.

“Hey Josie.” He smiles widely at her, and Josie notices his nice, boyish charm.

“Hey, Raf.” She offers back.

Rafael gets up from his spot in the bathtub, making Hope’s legs fall in the tub awkwardly. He gets up and stands a couple meters back from where Josie is sitting. “Do you want to maybe dance or something? If you’re up for it.”

Josie wants to tell him no. She wants to sit here and wait until everyone’s left. But then she looks over at Hope and Landon, where the shorter girl is sitting in her boyfriend’s lap, and they’re whispering what appears to be sweet nothings in each other’s ear. Josie knows they make a cute couple, anyone could tell by a mile away. But Josie couldn’t stand to be in the same room alone with them. With that she stands from the toilet and takes a step towards her unofficial date.

“Yeah, sure. I’m down.” She says, faking sincerity.

Rafael’s face breaks into a big smile. “Cool.” He says.

The pair say their goodbyes to the couple remaining in the restroom before walking down the stairs to the main event. Josie can see Lizzie dancing with some guy from their History class in the middle of the room. It is crowded, but they manage to make find a place on the dancefloor together. 

“Are you enjoying yourself?” The boy shouts to Josie over the crowd. They started slightly dancing with one another when they stopped walking, and there’s not much space between them.

“Yeah Definitely! It’s a little loud, but that’s really it.” She replies to him, moving her body slightly in beat of the song. 

“That’s good then.” He takes a step forward. “I’m glad that were getting to spend this amount of time together, what about you?” He asks.

Josie is slightly panicking, nothing noticeable, but she feels it. She knows that she’ll need to confront whatever feelings she has towards Rafael soon, but she doesn’t know what direction it will take their relationship with. For now, at least, Josie is going to listen to Lizzie and see if they make a good pair.

“Yeah Raf, I really like spending time with you too.” She smiles at him. She not lying, she does enjoy his company to a certain extent. She’s just not sure she can see it going further.

Rafael takes her words as a good step and takes another step forward, coming into Josie’s personal space. He leans down a little and speaks in her ear. “Can I kiss you?” He asks, moving to looks into the girl’s eyes.

Josie decides that it couldn’t hurt to try dating him for a while. She already knows he’s a gentleman, him and his ex-girlfriend are still on good terms and that’s a good sign. He goes to class, he’s tall, Lizzie likes him, and he’s like, really built. In the moment, Josie can’t see a downside on letting him kiss her. So, she nods her head in consent and sees him lean down towards her face, joining their lips together.

Its nice, the kiss. He guides them in a slow and steady pace. When his tongue flickers over her lips, she opens her mouth to let his tongue in, going a little faster now. One hand is on her waist, and another is weaving its fingers through her hair. Josie really isn’t minding this, not at all. She pushes up against him and lets the pace quicken, and not long after, they are fully making out in the middle of the room. Josie knows her body is having a physical reaction to his, he clearly knows what he’s doing. Josie having made out with a very limited amount of people, is less skillful, but Rafael makes up for it.  
They’ve been making out for maybe a minute when Josie starts to internally freak out. She’s not completely sure why, but at this point she just wants it over with. She was enjoying it, she swears she was, but now she just wanted to walk away.

Rafael was about to pick up the pace even more when Josie pulled away from him. The girl saw a slightly confused look on the boys face due to her sudden movement. Josie quickly scans the room trying to locate her sister but has no such luck.

“I should-“ she keeps looking around at the people in the room. “Find my sister. I haven’t uh, seen her in a while and I’m gonna go make sure she’s okay.”

Josie walks past the confused boy she left by himself and walks towards the kitchen. Seeing people in there, she walks right past them and heads to the back garden. She wants to be completely alone right now.

Once outside she’s trying to regain her thoughts. Everything was a little overwhelming right now. She doesn’t think her feeling towards Rafael have changed much, other that now she knows that he’s a good kisser. But she didn’t feel anything. No fireworks, no sparks, no very light tingles in her stomach, nothing. Just nothing. Not fully paying attention to her surrounding she takes a seat at the edge of the bench beside her and lets her head fall to her hands. Her feelings are all over the place and she doesn’t know how to organize them.  
She’s been sitting like that for a couple seconds before she hears a cough come from beside her. In that moment Josie realizes she’s not alone on that bench. She jumps back and gets ready to apologize because wow that’s embarrassing and-

It’s the goddess.

It’s the goddess she seen in school today. She’s facing forward and not looking at Josie, but her shifty eyes make it obvious that she noticed the other girl. Josie's words catch in her throat and she can’t get out the words of apologies she was about to make. She’s dumbstruck. 

She realizes that she’s staring when Josie noticing a small glance headed her way, before the girl looks back forward. Quickly turning her head forward as well, Josie isn’t sure what to do. She’d be lying if she said she hadn’t been thinking the beautiful girl beside her, the girl’s eyes have been in her mind all day. Josie shifts uncomfortably, unknowing to whether she should say something to her or not. She briefly looks at the girl again before turning back, and right afterwards she feels a pair of eyes on her.

Wanting to calm herself down, Josie reaches for the joint in her pocket. After taking it out of the plastic bag, Josie searches herself trying to find a lighter, but ultimately finding nothing. The other girl on the bench must notice her struggle as her hand goes into her jacket pocket, seemingly looking for a lighter for Josie. She pulls a lighter out and Josie is about to say thank you, when the girl lights her own joint that was tucked behind her ear, and then puts it back away. 

That caught Josie’s attention, not that the other girl didn’t already have it. Josie would probably be laughing if she wasn’t in a trance of slight shock. Who even does that? The girl beside her looks at Josie again, whose back to openly staring at her. 

After a brief moment of confusion, the girl takes her joint out her mouth. “Oh! Did you need a light too?” The girl asks smirking, already knowing the answer.

Josie can’t believe this girl. Who could act this bold with someone they just met? It intrigues her.

Josie nods her head. “Uh, yeah.” She says, sounding more uncertain than intended to.

The other girl reaches back in her pocket and pulls out the lighter. Josie expects her to hand it over, but the girl just shifts over and sticks her hand in front of Josie's face. Josie puts the joint in between her lips, and lets the other girl light it for her, making eye contact with her the entire time. Josie can’t look away, she’s still in some sort of trance, she thinks. This stranger is close to her, so close that Josie can see the sparks of brown in her eyes, in between the green. Once the joint is lighted, the girl lingers over Josie for a short time, just looking at her, before sitting back down in her original spot. Josie is ten times more confused now than she was when she first came out.

Its silent again, and pretty awkward, the only noises are the faint voices and music coming from inside the house, as well as when one of the girls would exhale. 

The girl beside Josie turns to look at her again. “You’re the birthday girl, right?” The stranger asks.

Josie looks towards the girl again. “One of them, yeah” She takes another puff of the joint.

“Right. Seventeen. Dancing queen and all that.” The girl looks proud of her own joke.

Josie can’t help but think this girl is kind of a dork. She laughs a little. “Yeah.”

Its silent for a beat. “How come you’re not inside where all the funs happening?” The girl questions her.

“Why aren’t you?” Josie playfully throws back at her.

The other girl huffs out a quick laugh. “Its not really my scene, to be honest.”

Josie felt that. “Same, actually.” Josie moves her body slightly towards the other girl. “If this isn’t your scene though, why are you here?” She hopes that sentence didn’t come off like she was accusing her of anything, Josie was genuinely interested.

“I heard that one of the birthday girls was really cute.” The girl smiles widely at Josie.

Josie can’t help but blush and look down shyly. What was this girl doing to her? They literally just met.

“But seriously? Ever since I moved here, I’m pretty sure I’ve binged every series on Netflix already that’s how much time I’ve spent in my room. Birthday party beats Netflix.” The girl says.

Josie remembers what Hope told her. “You’re new here, yeah?” The girl nods at Josie. “How are you finding it?” She asks curiously.

The girl purses her lips before speaking. “I’m not used to being in a town and school this small if I’m being honest, but its not all bad. The company’s pretty alright, if I’m being honest.” The girl winks at Josie at the end of the sentence.

The girls fall into a slight laughter for a couple seconds, before looking back into each other’s eyes. Josie can tell the girl beside her is trying not to laugh, and that just makes Josie giggle, making the other girl laugh all over again. Josie's not sure why they are laughing, but she makes no effort to stop it.

The door opening besides Josie makes her remember that there’s still a party going on. The person to exit the door is Rafael, and Josie's stomach falls. 

“Hey! I’ve been looking for you all over the place.” He sits down in between the stranger and Josie. “Lizzie told she hasn’t seen you either.” He says, sounding worried.

“Oh right, sorry, I just needed some air for a couple minutes.” Her gaze falls to the girl on the other side of the bench, she’s now looking at her hands on her legs.

Rafael follows Josie’s gaze and acknowledges the other girl beside him. “Hey, you’re that new Senior yeah?”

The girl besides him smiles and looks at him. “Yeah, Hi.”

“I’m Rafael” He sticks out his hand for her to shake.

She takes his hand and shakes it. “Like the angel.” She smiles wider, “I’m Penelope.” 

The girl looks past Rafael and to Josie. “Penelope.” She says again, this time aimed at Josie.

Josie looks at the girl- Penelope. She wishes she could look at her forever, for hours on end. 

“Josie.” She offers back.

And then, its just Penelope and Josie sitting on the bench. With Rafael in between them.


	3. Chapter 3

It would be a lie for Josie to say she spent the rest of that weekend completely sober. With everyone’s awareness that Josie and Lizzie’s parents were out of town, it seemed like the party went on all weekend, some people even deciding it was completely fine to stay over. Josie didn’t really mind it, being surrounded by her friends all weekend wasn’t the worst thing that could happen. Sadly enough, Josie didn’t see Penelope again that weekend.

 

That didn’t mean that Josie didn’t stalk all of the older girl’s social media accounts Sunday afternoon, once she was finally alone. She didn’t know her last name, but by looking through a couple seniors following list on Instagram, she finally found Penelope through Kaleb, a guy who is on the basketball team with Raf.

 

Penelope Park. That’s her name. 

 

 _Fuck._ Josie thinks. _She has no right being this beautiful._

 

Because she is beautiful. Josie doesn’t know how to explain it, there’s just something about Penelope Park that makes her stand out from the rest of the world.

 

Scrolling through the girl’s uploads, Josie can tell that the girl was pretty popular at her old school. There’s a picture with a group of cheerleaders posing at the camera, with Penelope front and center. Josie wouldn’t of pegged her as a cheerleader of she’s being honest, but the girl looks undeniably amazing in her uniform. 

Feeling weird about stalking the page of someone’s she’s only had half a conversation with, Josie’s about to leave Penelope’s page. Before she does, she notices that the older girls’ comments are turned off. _That’s strange._ Then she notices that this picture was uploaded 8 months ago, despite being Penelope’s second most recent post. There must be at least over 200 photos on her Instagram, but it looks like she doesn’t use it anymore. Despite being inactive for a long time, her most recent post was only uploaded less than a month ago. It’s a doodle on a piece of paper, a biologically accurate heart in the middle, with a whole lot of mini love hearts exploding from it. 

 

_She’s a cheerleader with an artistic side. That’s pretty cool._

 

Realizing that finding out Penelope appears to be so talented makes Josie feel a little insecure about her lack of talents. Not that she doesn’t have any, only that she straight-up refuses to share them with anyone. Josie would run away and hide in the Scottish Highlands if anyone ever caught her properly singing, and that’s the least extreme thing she would do. She can also play the ukulele and acoustic guitar, but she doesn’t think anything she can play is worth showing anyone.

 

Josie decides to exit the girls page before it sends her into an existential life crisis.

 

It’s 11:54pm and Josie can’t sleep. She’s standing in the middle of her and Lizzie’s bedroom, staring aimlessly out the window as her mind races. 

Josie likes Penelope. This is something that is established in her mind. Penelope is not Hope. Penelope has not been her best friend since preteen years. This make’s the possibility of eventually dating her a little bit more probable than ever dating Hope. 

_That’s if she even likes girls._ Josie thinks. _She probably doesn’t though. Probably has some boyfriend at her old school that’s as popular as she is._

 

Despite the chances of ever dating Penelope Park being almost as slim as the chances of dating Hope, Josie definitely figured something out that weekend. If she’s ever going to eventually deal with her sexuality in college, which Josie can admit is _definitely not straight,_ she needs to learn how to actually talk to a girl. Not in like a normal conversation about school or tv shows type of way. In like a gay way. 

 

Josie doesn’t know the first thing about flirting with girls. She doesn’t know what to talk about, how to behave, how touchy she should be. She literally knows nothing. Josie believes it’s got to be much harder than flirting with guys. Despite not having much experience in that department either, Lizzie taught her enough about laughing at whatever bad joke a boy has said or complimenting his totally massive muscles. Josie never done it but watching Lizzie flirt confirms that that is the case a large percent of the time.

 

Not with Rafael though. But Josie doesn’t want to think about Rafael right now.

 

Because right now, its 00:02am on a Sunday night, a school night, and Josie wants to flirt with a girl. For the experience, of course.

 

With her mind made up, Josie writes out a note for Lizzie. _Can’t sleep. Went out for a walk to clear my head. Don’t wait up._ Then she shoves on a jacket over her hoodie, puts on some shoes, and walks out her house with the intention to walk into the lesbian bar on the outskirts of the town and flirt with a girl.

 

Josie is across the street from _Sapphic Sips_ when she realizes how fucking awful her plan was. First of all, it’s a goddamn Sunday night. Who in the world is going to be out drinking in a bar with work the next morning? Alcoholics. That’s who. So Josie’s first time courting a woman will be with an alcoholic. Not that she thinks they’re bad people or anything, but Josie wouldn’t want to take advantage of anyone like that. Secondly, Josie is underage and without a fake ID. She’s going to walk into that place and get thrown right back out. 

 

Lastly, she’s just not ready.

 

What is she supposed to do if she got in? Sit down with a woman who is most likely way older than herself and what. Woo her? Josie barely accepts her non-straightness, if a girl came up to her and started flirting with her there’s a high chance, she’ll run faster than she ever has before in order to get away. And that’s just humiliating. 

Feeling defeated, tired, and mildly embarrassed, Josie slumps down on the bench that was to her left. _Why do I have to be such a fucking idiot all the time?_ Mentally ridiculing herself seems to be a Josie Saltzman specialist. She rubs at her eyes in hope that the stinging will go away. She doesn’t want to cry right now. 

“Hey!”

A voice interrupts her thoughts, and she looks up to where she can see a figure crossing the road coming from the bar.

Josie’s vision is slightly blurry from her tears that are in her eyes, but the figures getting closer. She’s on the side of the road Josie’s on before Josie notices who it is.

Freya Mikaelson. 

Aka Hope’s aunt. She’s not much older than Josie, just graduating college that year. She’s probably only like 22, 23. She doesn’t know much about the woman, only that she and Hope are close. Her friend likes to occasionally talk on about how cool her aunts are, stories of bar fights, ballroom dancing and a whole lot of other things.

Something else that Josie knows about Freya is that Hope mentioned is that her girlfriend recently moved away for work and-

 

Oh no.

 

Fuck.

 

_Fuckfuckfuckfuckfuckfuckfuckfuck_

 

Freya Mikaelson just caught her lurking outside a lesbian bar. 

Shit.

 

The older woman sits down next to her, but Josie isn’t looking at her. Instead, she’s staring intensely at her own shoes. They’re vans. Black, a little dated. She thinks she can see a hole in the side of them. Does that mean she shou-

“Anyone in there?” She hears from her side. Looking up from her shoes, she sees Freya Mikaelson looking at her with a half-amused, half-concerned expression. 

Realizing she’s acting strange, Josie snaps out of it. “Oh, sorry! Just, in a bit of a daydream, that’s all.” She gets out, a little cheerier than she was going for. “You’re Freya, right? Hope’s aunt?” 

The other woman gives her a grin before talking. “Indeed I am. And you’re one of the Saltzman twins…whose names I’m currently blanking on.” She confesses.

“Josie. And my sister’s name is Lizzie.” 

The blonde woman hums at her, nodding her head slightly. “Of course, Hope never shuts up about either of you. I probably know more personal stuff about you than you’d be comfortable with.”

Josie knows she’s probably referring to something rather mundane. Like the fact that she’s broken both her thumbs. Or that she gathers potato chip crumbs that fall when she has them, sits them on her shirt, and eats them once the bag is finished. 

But Josie can’t help but feel a sense of dread. What if Hope knows about her crush and talked to her aunt about it? That’s the first time she’s thought about her crush on Hope all weekend, does she even still have a crush on her?  
Freya can probably sense the panic mode Josie’s went into. “Nothing too personal, just an off-comment about eating crumbs.”

Her first thought is _thank fuck_ and her second thought is I’m going to kill Hope Mikaelson.

 

“Right.”

 

They fall into a silence after that. During that time, Freya pulls out a cigarette. Josie refuses one when the woman offers.

 

For a brief second, Josie thinks of asking Freya for advice. To ask her _what the fuck should I do_ or _how am I supposed to ever tell a girl I’m interested in her_ or something equally as lame. Freya likes girls. Freya has a girlfriend. Josie wants a girlfriend. There’s definitely some correlation there.

“So, what are you doing here?” Freya asks her, turning her head to face in front of her.

 

“Couldn’t sleep. Went for a walk.” Josie replies automatically, hoping Freya wouldn’t question her on it.

 

Freya questions her on it. “At,” she checks her phone, “quarter to one on a Sunday night?”

 

Josie doesn’t know how to reply. She doesn’t know how to say she thought right now would be the perfect time for her to improve on her flirting skills. Because it would just add to the embarrassment she already feels.

“Yes.” She lies.

Freya stares at her for a moment, seeming to be contemplating something. Josie looks back, not breaking eye-contact. She wants to, the older woman’s gaze is kind of terrifying in a hot way, but she doesn’t. 

Ultimately, Freya gives up. “Okay.” She sighs out. “Well I didn’t drink anything tonight, if you want me to drive you home. Me being a responsible adult and all.” She says, giving Josie a small smile.

Despite not opening up to Freya, Josie still likes her presence. And seeing as she’s Hope’s aunt, she trusts her. 

 

And Josie doesn’t really feel like walking forty minutes back home. So, she takes Freya’s offer, and heads back home with her.

 

 

 

 

To say Josie was excited for school on Monday was an overstatement. She doesn’t like being cliché, but Mondays for her are a fucking drag. Whose decision was it to have three different science classes in a row? And to finish the school day off with double PE… A nightmare.

But Josie isn’t dreading this Monday as much as she usually does. And its to do with the model of a women who she met at her birthday party. Maybe they’ll see each other in the hallway like they did the other week. But Josie doesn’t know what she would do if that happens. Would she say hi to her? Would Penelope even want to talk to her? 

However, her excitement for the day wares off once it gets to PE without seeing even a glance of the goddess. And now she has to do track. Great.

Josie can’t run, so instead she sits on the ground to the side and pretends to do exercises. It works, the coach barely spares her a glance. But Raf sees her after running around the field, and promptly sits down right in front of her.

“Why aren’t you running?” The athlete asks, putting his hands behind him and leaning back. He looks good like this, crop-top showing off his ridiculous six-pack. He’s also breathing heavily, most likely due to sprinting. 

 

 _Definitely attractive,_ she thinks.

 

“Because, I believe there’s better ways I can physically challenge myself. Like touching my toes with my legs straight.” 

 

“You’re not even standing, Jos.” He laughs at her.

“Okay, okay! You caught me! I’m avoiding anything that gonna give me a stitch. My body’s fragile, Raf.” She tells him, leaning down and basking in the sun.

 

She enjoys talking to the basketball player. Aside from being handsome, he’s easy to talk to. Josie doesn’t feel the need to act like someone she’s not when she’s around him.

 

For the most part, at least.

 

“Okay.” He says, laughter dying down. “Do you want to go out with me on Friday?”

 

It’s not unexpected, Rafael asking her out. Lizzie’s been telling her it’s a long time coming. But she can’t help but be a little shocked. 

 

“Out? You mean like…”

 

“A date? Yes. If you want to, of course.” He adds on sweetly.

Josie likes Rafael. That’s established. They kissed, and it was fine. Nice, even. He’d make a good boyfriend, they’d look good together. And no one would be surprised. It would be easy. That’s what Josie’s thinking when she answers him.

 

“I’d like that.” 

 

 

She walks home on Mondays. Every other day she and Lizzie get a ride with Hope, but on Monday’s the other girl has a free period last and goes to the gym. Lizzie usually walks home with her, but today she’s stuck helping out her chemistry teacher who she’s pissed off recently. So, Josie is alone.

 

That is, until she reaches the front gates of the school.

 

Leaning against a wall, Penelope Park is there. Looking right at her.

Josie can’t help the way her entire body temporarily shuts down, its entirely Penelope’s fault. Black jeans, black button-up shirt and black leather jacket all add up to make the other girl quite literally radiate sex appeal. It contrasts with the absolutely adorable smile tracing her lips.

Penelope breaks the silence first. “You know, I’m still new to the area. And I don’t exactly know the bad parts of town yet. So, to make sure I don’t accidentally walk down an alleyway and get murdered, and seeing as we’ve sorta met already, maybe you could walk me home?”

 

There’s something about Penelope Park that makes Josie feel like she’s four seconds away from passing out. It could be the way she feels a little lightheaded, or the way her fingers tingle. But its most likely because Penelope’s eyes are so fucking beautiful and green Josie thinks they could hypnotize her in seconds.

 

“Alright.” Is all she manages to get out.

 

Despite her lack of response, the other girl smiles even wider at her. Her smile reminds Josie of something, but she can’t put her finger on it.

Penelope turns to walk, and looks back to Josie. “I was hoping you’d say yes.”

 

Josie feels as if she’s getting flustered by the second being around Penelope. Every word the older girl speaks to her makes her heart want to burst out of her chest. Josie has had crushes before, but none of them has given her this much physical reaction.

Josie catches up with Penelope, and soon they’re walking side by side. Josie looks to the girl beside her. She likes her nose piercing, she notes. She also like the way her hair sits. Penelope’s shorter than she’d previously thought, it makes her cuter.

Most likely sensing the eyes on her, Penelope turns to look at Josie. Not wanting to get caught staring, Josie quickly turns her head. When Penelope finally looks away, Josie glances at her for a quick second.

“How was your birthday?” Penelope asks her as they stroll together.

 

Thinking back to Friday, Josie thinks she did have a good time. Spending time with her sister and Hope would’ve cut it for her, but if the party never happened then she wouldn’t off spoken to Penelope. 

“Yeah, it was great. Lizzie ended up puking throughout the entire night, so I had to hold her hair back. Other than that the party was fine. So, it was good.” She answers, turning to look at the shorter girl as she speaks.

 

“That’s good, that you enjoyed yourself.” Penelope says, pushing her hand through her hair. “I ended up heading pretty soon after we met, so I didn’t get to see you guys cut the cake.” 

“You didn’t miss much. The most notable thing that happened was my friend Hope beating all of the basketball team at beer pong.” 

 

Penelope grins at Josie’s words. “Your friend sounds badass.”

 

“She is.”

 

Speaking to Penelope is overwhelming. Other than looking like an actual goddess, she just seems…cool. Josie doesn’t know how to describe it, its just the way Penelope walks and talks and exists that makes Josie feel a little boring next to her. She doesn’t know much about the other girl, but her life is surely more interesting than her own.

 

“How come you moved your senior year?” Josie asks the girl.

At the words, Penelope tenses beside her. She’s looking straight ahead, looking deep in thought

 

Josie immediately regrets the question when she notices the girl’s reaction. “Oh, sorry! That was a personal question, I shouldn’t off asked that. Sorry.” She says, unable to look at Penelope.

 

Penelope turns to Josie before talking back. “No, you’re fine. There was just,” Penelope rubs at the base of her throat. A nervous habit, probably. “an incident.” She finishes.

Already feeling bad for the first question, Josie doesn’t push. She’s curious, sure, but she doesn’t want to be invasive. 

Penelope changes the subject first. “Cactus or African daisies?” She asks.

“Sorry?”

“My rooms looking pretty bland at the moment, and I don’t know whether to decorate it with plants or flowers. What do you think?” Penelope asks as they turn a corner.

Josie didn’t know it was possible for a person to look so attractive yet act so cute. Talking about different types of flowers wasn’t what Josie thought Penelope would be into. But who was she to assume, they don’t know each other. Yet, at least.

“Why not both?” Josie suggests.

Penelope thinks for a moment, and then smirks at Josie. “I like how you think.” She says, adding a wink that makes Josie’s heart stop for a second.

Josie tries to laugh off how flustered she feels. 

The girl beside her stops walking. “This is me.” Penelope says.

They’re standing in front of an apartment complex. _where did the time go?_ Josie thinks to herself. She doesn’t want to stop talking to Penelope.

“Oh, okay.” She says, barely disguising her disappointment.

 

They’re a couple feet apart. Within a than a second, Penelope’s in her personal space. They have their eyes locked on each other, and her hand goes up to cup Josie’s cheek. For a moment, Josie think’s that the older girl is going to kiss her, and her heartbeat speeds right up. But all she does is wipe a thumb over her cheek.

 

“You had an eyelash.” Penelope whispers out, then steps back.

 

Josie can hear her heartbeat in her ears. “Okay.” She says, quieter than Penelope’s previous words. 

Penelope smirks at her, and Josie swears the girl knew what she was doing. “See you around, Jojo.” She says, walking towards into the apartment.

_Jojo._

“Bye!” Josie shouts out, earning Penelope to turn back and give her a wave.

 

And it was there.

 

That was the moment Josie realized Penelope Park was going to be the death of her

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ...It's literally been 84 years. Sorry lmao. This was actually my first fic on here, so i wasn't completely sure how i was going to format everything. Since then there was been i think 7? other fics i've worked on, and it's given me a lot of breathing space for this one. What i've decided works best for me is smaller chapters. My first real one for this was 5k, but now i think every new chapter will probably be half of that. It's just the way i prefer writing it, tbh. While it will be smaller, that means it'll be more frequent. So i wont leave it for several months after this chapter lmao. I didn't proofread so feel free to tell me if ive made like a grammar mistake or something, im also pretty bad for repeating phrases. Anyways, hope yall enjoy!!

**Author's Note:**

> please criticize this to death i really need to improve my writing before i go into uni to become an actual writer lmao. And before anyone gets confused - this is HEAVILY inspired by evak's and Elu's stories in Skam and Skam France, but not fully. If you want to contact me my insta and tumblr are: trevoraskill. Also im updating this as i write so updates might be slow. Any whom hope y'all enjoy!


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